“Rev Fr. Steven Webber” (Summer 2002)

From Issue No. 86: A Devil of a Storm (Summer 2002)

“Rev Fr. Steven Webber”

Attending a conservative Novus Ordo parish in Camarillo, California, for several years, Fr. Steven Webber’s parents at first did not realize the depth of the problem in the Church’s current crisis. Then they took their son to be confirmed in a “more progressive” parish church across town. Fluttering doves and flitting “liturgical dancers” left them aghast and questioning. After the local pastor gave distinctly uncatholic answers to a number of key moral queries, his family began searching earnestly for the truth. They saw then that the catechesis of old, with which they were trained, was no more to be found – no more Baltimore Catechism, but rather a watered-down, ineffectual pseudo-religion.

The road of Providence led to a religious-goods store, where Father’s family went to buy Scapular medals. There, they met the proprietress who introduced them to Tradition. Then they met Fr. Fred Schell, S.J., an independent Traditional priest trained in St. Mary’s, Kansas, when the Jesuits were still in residence. He did much to steer the Webber family in the right direction by means of sound catechesis and doctrine. The family also started going to an evening study group, which Fr. Webber considered one of the most important elements in his coming to Tradition, and ultimately to the priesthood. [Father Schell is still active in the ministry, operating out of a large independent priory in Southern California.]

In Father’s junior year of high school, his parents decided to move away from the dangerous Newchurch to live in what Father calls “the Christ life” – praying, learning and living the Faith as it has been passed down for 2,000 years. Fr. attended St. Mary’s Academy in Kansas in his senior year, following in the footsteps of Father Schell before him. Here, surrounded by the true Mass and the true Sacraments, the seeds of Father’s priestly vocation were cultivated. He stresses the importance of the Catholic education and community life at St. Mary’s, as well as the truth and doctrine upon which they are based. Father’s time in St. Mary’s, though of a short duration, was a tremendous help in his journey to the priesthood.

Father was attracted to the priesthood by “the orderly life” which always appealed to him and “the power the priest has to bring peace to a soul, the power of God to save souls through the priest.” Immediately after graduating in 1996, he entered the Seminary.

Father notes that the Novus Ordo “seriously endangers the salvation of numerous souls.” There is “an objective truth” which is lost upon the Conciliarists, who have no idea that the Faith centers around “the true Sacrifice of the Mass and doctrine,” sorely wanting in the Newchurch. What Father sees lacking in the Novus Ordo is the true nature of the priesthood lost amidst the spirit of the world. Sacrifice must be the center of every priest’s life, “to follow Our Lord crucified. We don’t live for this life.”

As Father goes out to expend his youthful energies for the life to come, we pray for his spiritual success. Much good can be accomplished by a priest knowing and living the true realities of life when the majority around him have forgotten them.